Hi Gutterpunk: I thought about this and what you say is true but ebay is not an auction house it is a market place to my mind.

They do not have people to pick the stuff up, phtograph it, display it and pack it up. They pay an auctioneer, bookeeper to handle the money, experts to ID stuff. That's off the top of my head from going to a few auctions.

I imagined ebay fees would be around 5% tops.